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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136567">Control</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicallyWritten/pseuds/MagicallyWritten'>MagicallyWritten</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Borderlands (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abusive Handsome Jack, Adult Angel (Borderlands), Angel (Borderlands) Lives, Attempt at Humor, Blood, Borderlands: Borderlands 2, Brother Rhys, Canon Abuse, Canon Related, Canon Temporary Character Death, Canon deaths, Canon-Typical Violence, Dad Jack, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Drama, F/F, F/M, Family, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Issues, Flirting, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Growing Up, Handsome Jack is Rhys's and Angel's Dad, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent Handsome Jack (Borderlands), Protective Older Brothers, Rhysha is end game, Romance, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Rivalry, Sister Angel, Survival, Tales From the Borderlands, Team as Family, Violence, Young Angel (Borderlands), but Rhys will flirt with other people, rhysha - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:34:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,195</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136567</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicallyWritten/pseuds/MagicallyWritten</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“He will not control us; I’ll make sure of that.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Angel/Gaige (Borderlands), Handsome Jack/Nisha (Borderlands), Rhys/Sasha (Borderlands)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Childhood's End</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jack peered into his children’s room, checking on the two loves-of-his-life. His children were playing together on the floor, a mass of crayons sitting next to them. One was drawing on a piece of paper, a rainbow of colors all divulging in the center where he had drawn the Hyperion symbol. The other was playing with a stuffed bear. Jack walked into their room, leaning down to talk to the two of them, “Hey you two, what are you doing?”</p><p>“I’m drawing Hyperion, where I’m going to work with you one day, dad!” The young boy held up his drawing to show to his father.</p><p>“I see that Rhys, well, if you keep studying hard you might be able to join the company!” Jack turned his gaze to his daughter, “And what about you, Angel? Who is that?”</p><p>Angel hugged the bear tightly, her short black hair covering her face as she did so, “This is Mister Bear, he eats crime!” She smiled.</p><p>“Oh, he must eat a lot of crime with such a big belly!” Jack laughed, but his laughter slowly subsided when he noticed something on his daughter’s arm. “Uh, honey, what’s that on your arm? Did uh, heh, did your brother draw that?”</p><p>Rhys glanced up from his drawing, “I didn’t draw on her this time!” He said, innocently.</p><p>Angel pulled her sleeve up further to show her father, “Blue! I dunno where it came from. Do you think it’s pretty? Rhys said it was pretty!”</p><p>“I said it was cool, not pretty! Too bad it isn’t Hyperion yellow, though.” Rhys muttered, going back to drawing more yellow on his masterpiece as Angel stuck her tongue out at him.</p><p>Jack seemed to be in shock, an emotion they hadn’t seen from their father before. He began to take a few steps backward, chuckling nervously, “Y-yeah, very pretty…” He made it to the door of their bedroom and called to his wife, “H-honey!? Can you come here for a second!?”</p><p>~</p><p>After discovering Angel’s newly acquired blue markings, Jack and his wife made an appointment that same day to meet with a doctor. Both children dragged their feet and sighed multiple times as they got dressed, Angel especially so because doctors meant shots and pain and cold rooms and weirdos, but still, she listened to her father. She was daddy’s little girl, after all. He made her wear a long-sleeved sweater and long pants, even though she wanted to wear a frilly dress, but at least he compromised and let her wear her favorite sweater with a rainbow. Once they signed in at the office, they sat in the cold waiting room; their mother read a magazine as the television in the corner blared some sort of boring show about cooking. Rhys stared at the cooking show, almost in a trance, and Angel heard her brother’s stomach growl. She glanced over at him, feeling guilty that he was dragged here because of her, and she tugged on her father’s sleeve and pointed towards a vending machine in the room. “Can you get me some candy, please dad?”</p><p>“You know that stuff rots your teeth, Angel.”</p><p>“I’ll brush them extra good tonight!” She said and smiled.</p><p>Jack couldn’t help but smile back at her, “Good girl, I’ll get you some candy then.” He said, standing from the chair and heading over to the vending machine.</p><p>Without her father or mother realizing, Angel trailed after Jack, excited to bring the candy back to her older brother. She watched as her father fed the machine money, but it didn’t give him the candy he wanted nor his money back even after he pressed multiple buttons. He began to bang on the machine and kick it, “Come on… I just want some candy for my daughter…” He kicked it again, “Stupid piece of crap asshole!”</p><p>Angel tilted her head, eyebrows furrowed, “Daddy, what’s an asshole?” She said, the foreign word having no meaning to her.</p><p>“Uh…” Jack muttered, turning towards her, surprised by her appearance, “Oh, honey, I didn’t know you were there! Um, don’t repeat any of those words daddy just said, ok?”</p><p>“Ok. Where’s the candy?” She asked, only concerned about one thing.</p><p>He kneeled in front of her, ruffling her short black hair, “Sorry kiddo, looks like we aren’t getting any candy from this machine.”</p><p>Angel’s lips drooped into a sad frown as she glanced over at the machine, “Is it broken?” She asked.</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>She stared at it, a feeling pulsating through her left arm, a strange, but powerful feeling. “I think I can fix it…” She said, softly, as she raised her hand towards the machine.</p><p>“Angel? What are you…” Jack stopped midsentence as the vending machine spat out a packet of candy.</p><p>“There!” She said cheerfully, walking over to the bag of candy and picking it up.</p><p>Jack had stood up by this point, hand on his forehead, “What the hell did you just do Angel?” He asked, his voice rising louder than he wanted to the point that other people in the waiting room glanced over at them.</p><p>She flinched from his tone, “Um, I fixed it… uh, I don’t really know… beyond that…”</p><p>“Honey, the doctor called us…” Jack’s wife’s voice echoed across the waiting room. Angel skipped over to her brother, giving him the candy.</p><p>“Thanks, Angel!” Rhys said cheerfully, taking his favorite candy and opening the bag greedily.</p><p>“Hey, you can share some of it with me, I did get it for you, after all!” Angel muttered.</p><p>Rhys rolled his eyes, “You got it for me, not for yourself!"</p><p>"There's plenty to share!" Angel put one of her hands on her hips, her other outstretched, palm up, waiting for Rhys to give her some candy.</p><p>Rhys stared at her hand for a moment, chewing on the candy, cheeks puffed at her persistence, "… Fine, here.” He grumbled, dumping some candy into her hand.</p><p>“Come on children, Jack, the doctor is ready to see Angel.” Their mother spoke softly as she gently held Jack’s hand, which calmed him down. He followed his family and the nurse to the doctor’s room where the doctor sat Angel up onto the examining table. Of course, what came next after he examined her was no surprise to Jack or his mother. Angel was a siren.</p><p>“A siren?” Rhys asked his parents as the doctor went out of the room. “What’s a siren and why does she get to be one and not me?”</p><p>“Hush, Rhys,” Jack commanded, and his son pouted, crossing his arms in front of him.</p><p>“What is a siren, though?” Angel asked the same question, and Jack’s stern gaze softened.</p><p>“It’s… it just means your special, honey.” Jack replied.</p><p>“Yes, you have an amazing gift.” His wife responded to Jack’s sentence. “Your life will be different from here on out, but I promise, you’ll do amazing things.”</p><p>Jack picked his daughter up off the table, hugging her, “Yes you will! When you grow up, you can work with me at Hyperion! I’ll make sure you get in!” She giggled as he winked at her.</p><p>Rhys glared, staying silent, as his mother patted him on the shoulder, “You too, Rhys. You’ll do amazing things one day as well.”</p><p>He glanced at the floor, “Even though I’m not a siren?”</p><p>“Of course, darling, you’re the smartest boy I’ve ever met.” She leaned down to his ear and whispered, “I think one day you’ll even be able to run Hyperion.” Rhys smiled wide from this, imagining himself as the leader of the company, his mother and father being incredibly proud of him. “Come now, children, it’s time for us to go home. How about we stop and get some ice cream on the way?” She smiled, holding the door open as her children cheered and Jack laughed at their eagerness for ice cream.</p><p>~</p><p>Sadly, they never made it to get ice cream. The doctor had sold Jack and his family out—he had told some thugs about Angel, that she was a siren, and they intercepted the family and kidnapped Angel by gunpoint. Jack glared at the thug who held Angel, not daring to move because of the turret he had set up beside him and the three other thugs behind him, all pointing their guns at the small family. His wife held Jack's hand, squeezing tightly as tears streamed down her face. Rhys stood slightly in front of them, fists clenched, teeth bared.</p><p>“Give her back!” Rhys shouted, and the thug laughed as Angel sobbed against his grip.</p><p>“Listen here you… bandit… give my daughter back! I’ll, we’ll give anything just… I work with Hyperion I can…” Jack stumbled over his words, desperate to find some way to get his daughter back.</p><p>“You? You’re, what, a code-monkey? You can’t give me anything that’s worth a siren! Come on now, you already have another kid and you can make more, just leave her with me.” The thug smirked back at the family.</p><p>“Daddy I wanna go home!” Angel cried loudly.</p><p>Jack looked at his daughter with tears in his eyes, her sobs making him breakdown. Rhys looked at his parents, “We can’t… we can’t leave her! We must save her, what… what do we do? Dad? Mom? We aren’t leaving her!” Rhys said, pulling on the hem of his dad’s shirt, tears stinging his eyes. After his parents didn’t respond he looked around desperately. Maybe if he ran fast enough across the way, they would focus on him and Angel could escape? Their dad had a gun, he could fire upon the thugs—that was his plan. He began to run across the sand-covered ground towards Angel and the thug holding her.</p><p>“Rhys!” Jack yelled at his son, grabbing the sleeve of his shirt to try to stop him, but his fingers slipped, and Rhys only stumbled before continuing to rush forward.</p><p>The thug laughed, pointing his SMG at the young boy, and shot multiple bullets into his right arm. Rhys gasped out, falling to the ground, wailing in pain, blood pooling underneath him. Angel’s blue eyes widened with fear, her whole-body trembling at the sight before her.</p><p>“Rhys! This… no, this can’t be happening! Rhys!!!” She shouted, her siren tattoos lighting up a very light blue color as she struggled against the thug’s arms.</p><p>He laughed at her attempts, “Relax kid, your brother brought this onto himself—uh, what’s…?” He glanced at his turret beside him, the turret jerking around, almost as if something was fighting to control it. “What is happening—” Before the thug could even finish speaking, the turret shook, faced towards the thug holding Angel, and poured bullets into him before turning on the thugs behind him and shooting them to the ground. The thug dropped Angel as his dead body hit the ground and the turret shook again, Angel’s hands balled into fists, tears dripping from her eyes and onto the ground as she tried to control it, keep control of it, but she couldn't and her siren powers began to cause the turret to spin around and shoot chaotically in all directions.</p><p>“Honey get down!” She heard her father cry out before the turret’s shots rang out, a stunned silence falling over the land as Angel finally gained control of the turret again, forcing it to power down. “No… NO!!!!” Her father yelled out, cradling his wife’s body in his arms. Angel curled up into a ball beside the dead body of her captor as she covered her ears, trying to block the sounds of her father and brother crying, the scent of fresh blood drifting through the hot air, causing her nose to wrinkle. Her life would never be the same again, just as her mother had said.</p><p>~</p><p>“Let me go, dad!” Angel shouted, struggling against her father’s grasp. They were somewhere Angel had never been before, her father had brought her here after spending some days in the emergency room where Rhys was and where their mother was pronounced dead on the spot. Jack had said he was taking Angel home, but this wasn't home, this was a cold and empty room with nothing but black screens and a single chair in the center of the room. </p><p>“Ah, no can do my little Angel…” Jack said, finally forcing her into a chair and restraining her arms and legs, easily overpowering her. “This is for your protection, honey!” He said as he brought over a round dish to where she sat.</p><p>“You’re such an… an asshole!” She shouted a word which she still didn’t understand the meaning to, but knew it was meant to be used when angered.</p><p>“Language!” Her father said back to her, “Come on, honey, after what happened with… your mother… I had to do this, to protect you, me, and Rhys…”</p><p>She sniffed back her tears, “Is… is Rhys ok?”</p><p>“He’s…” Her father paused for a few seconds, trying to find the right words to say as he didn't want to tell her yet that Rhys's right arm had to be amputated from the gunshot wounds he suffered, “He’ll be alright, he’s still in the hospital right now, recovering, but he’s going to be fine. See, you want to protect him, right? Keep him safe? Then you’ll stay here, for him and for me.”</p><p>She bit her bottom lip, “O-okay…” She wanted to protect her father and brother, and if this was the best way to keep them safe, then she would listen and be obedient.</p><p>“Besides, look at this…” He brought the round dish down and placed it gently on her head before flipping a switch, the black screens in the room all lighting up, showing different places in Pandora all at once. “Our Hyperion satellites will let you see all of Pandora from this little room and you can control it with this helmet and your siren powers which will let you see the world at all times of the day! Isn’t that a good deal, honey?”</p><p>Angel looked out at the screens that the Hyperion satellites broadcasted to her. “I… ok… yeah, I think…” She muttered, amazed at seeing the world before her eyes and having control over what she could see.</p><p>“I love you, Angel…” Jack said, softly, patting her shoulder.</p><p>“… I love you too, dad.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Oh, Sister</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I need you to watch and care for Angel while I’m gone,” Jack said as he gathered supplies, including his gun. He had dark bags under his eyes as he hadn’t been getting nearly enough sleep lately, instead opting for less sleep so he could pour himself into some sort of historical books and notes—even those at Hyperion were getting upset with him over his less than stellar work performance as of late.</p><p>“Why? Where are you going?” Rhys asked, coming to sit on top of the counter of their small kitchen.</p><p>“I need to head to Elpis for…” Jack sighed, pushing his hair back and glaring at his son, “Why are you questioning me? Just do as I say.”</p><p>Rhys looked away from his father’s heterochromatic eyes, one trait he shared with him, “I… alright…”</p><p>“Good boy.” Jack replied, “I’ll be back in a bit, there’s plenty of microwavable food and ramen in the cupboard for you and Angel.” He turned towards the front door, giving a little wave to Rhys, “See ya in a while, kiddo.”</p><p>“See you, Dad,” Rhys said back, watching as his dad left for Elpis. He climbed down from the countertop, pausing in the now completely empty room. He could watch television, or play games, or read a few books, or write some code, or… check on his sister, which was something he hadn’t done in years. He looked down at his right arm solemnly, remembering how the hospital staff tried everything to save his flesh-and-bone arm but, ultimately, ended up having it amputated; furthermore, shrapnel from a missed shot had damaged his right eye to the point where he would’ve been blind if it wasn’t for the replacement ECHO eye that his dad had bought for him. He recalled the years it took to get used to the Hyperion prosthetic arm and eye and practicing every single day with the technology they had built into them. He let out a long sigh, placing his hand on the joint where the prosthetic was attached to his shoulder, gently massaging it. It was difficult to look at his sister, as he began to associate her with their mother’s passing. Still, Rhys knew that it was not her fault, that she didn’t mean to, and as his father told him constantly, that it was the bandits’ fault and that one day they’d pay.</p><p>They had moved to accommodate Angel’s new… living arrangement. She now had her own room where she was restrained and hooked up to the Hyperion satellites. Rhys entered the room, giving his sister a small smile when she glanced towards him from her chair. Their father had told him that this was for her own good, for their own good, for the world’s own good, but Rhys still always felt guilty when he saw her. At times, he snuck into her room to bring her candy and sodas and sometimes brought in handheld video games to play that she could watch. Their father, however, installed cameras once he became savvy of Rhys’s tricks and he began to accompany Rhys when he entered Angel’s chambers for his own safety, that, along with associating her with their mother’s death, led to him seeing her less and less until he stopped altogether.</p><p>“Rhys!” She said, forcing his attention back to her.</p><p>“Hey, Angel!” He cheerfully responded, “I brought you some candy.” He held out a bag of colorful fruit gummies.</p><p>“Oh, thank you! Hey, can you undo the restraints on my wrists so I can eat them?” She asked.</p><p>“Sure thing,” Rhys muttered, quickly undoing them so Angel could eat. She hadn’t had candy in so many years and she began to pour a few pieces into her mouth at a time, savoring the taste before chewing them up. Rhys watched her, glancing at the dome-like helmet attached to her head. He began to reach up to take it off when she recoiled away from his hand. </p><p>“N-no!” She muttered, “Dad will know…”</p><p>“He isn’t home right now, he left for Elpis for reasons undisclosed, you know how he is.”</p><p>“He still will know, he has an alarm on his person, just, don’t Rhys.” She said sternly, and he pulled his hand away once again. The two stayed in silence for a while, the only sounding coming from Angel’s chewing and the bag crinkling. Rhys looked at his sister, who looked quite different than the last time he had seen her.</p><p>“My, you’ve gotten tall.” She muttered between bites, breaking the silence.</p><p>“I’m finally taller than you, I think.” He smirked, causing her to roll her eyes.</p><p>“The height is all in your legs, without them you’d be shorter than me still!”</p><p>“Hey now, don’t go imagining cutting my legs off just to be taller than me!” This caused Angel to burst out laughing. Rhys laughed as well, soften than her, that nostalgic feeling of when they were younger and best friends coming back to him. “You’ve changed too,” he motioned to the right side of his head, “you shaved some of your hair.”</p><p>Angel’s laughter died down, a few tears were left in her eyes that she wiped away, “Yeah, I had to convince dad to do it, but uh, you know… I have him wrapped around my finger…” Her voice got softer as she finished her sentence.</p><p>Rhys glanced up at the machine she was attached to, thinking to himself that if that were true, she wouldn’t be stuck in here—he knew his sister didn’t want this but she was giving up so much to keep the rest of her family safe.</p><p>“It isn’t all bad.” She spoke, almost as if she had read his thoughts.</p><p>“Uh…” Rhys muttered, startled, “What’s… good about it?”</p><p>She pointed towards the screens surrounding her, “This.”</p><p>He looked around, looking at the monitors all showing different areas of Pandora. “Watching those dusty bandit-filled lands?” </p><p>“Um…” She bit her lip, glancing around before motioning for Rhys to get closer. </p><p>He placed a hand on his hip, one eyebrow raised, “We’re alone Angel…”</p><p>She glared at him and motioned again for him to get closer. He sighed, leaning down to her. She huffed, grabbing his shirt collar, and pulled him even closer so that she could whisper in his ear.</p><p>“H-hey!” He muttered by her sudden action.</p><p>“I want to show you something. It’s a secret, so you can’t tell anyone.”</p><p>Rhys groaned, “What Angel? What did you do? You know dad will find out—”</p><p>“No, no he hasn’t, or won’t, find out, unless you tell him which means don’t tell him, Rhys!” She let go of him, letting him stand back up. </p><p>“Fine, show me.”</p><p>“Nope, not until you promise.”</p><p>He placed a hand on his forehead, sighing, “I promise—”</p><p>“The promise we did when we were kids!” She held out her pinky for him.</p><p>“Wha—?” he muttered before groaning once again, “Come on, Angel, we aren’t little kids anymore! I’m eighteen, I’m an adult, and you’re two years off from being one!”</p><p>She turned her head away from him, “Guess you’re not going to see my secret then!”</p><p>Rhys crossed his arms, tapping his foot, “You’re really going to make me do this?” </p><p>She smiled, “Yep.”</p><p>After a minute of thinking, he dropped his arms with a groan before crossing his pinky finger with hers. “I pinky promise.” He said, defeated.</p><p>“Yay!” Angel cheered, happy her brother conceded. “Ok, ok,” She said while leaning over in her chair, taking something from underneath it. “Ta-da!” She showed Rhys a large piece of paper which she had drawn on. In the center was herself with angelic wings and behind her were four people and a bird. Above them were the words ‘New friends’.</p><p>“Who are they?” Rhys muttered, looking at the paper curiously.</p><p>“My friends!”</p><p>“Your friends?” Rhys tilted his head, glancing from the paper to look at Angel, “How are they your friends? Have you been stalking them on these screens?”</p><p>“No! Well, yes.” She sighed, placing the paper in her lap, “But it’s more than that, they know… I’m here, or there, or with them, watching them.”</p><p>“They… know?”</p><p>“Yes! I-I can speak to them—in their heads, telepathically.”</p><p>Rhys’s brows furrowed in worry, “And… who are they? What have you been telling them?”</p><p>Angel shrugged, “I helped them throughout their journey, you know since I can see everything on Pandora. They thought I was an A.I., and they needed help finding a vault.”</p><p>“A v-vault?”</p><p>“Mhm, they’re vault hunters!” </p><p>“Angel you can’t… you have to stop communicating with them, or anyone else like them in the future!”</p><p>Angel’s eyes widened, “What? Why?”</p><p>“Vault hunters are bad news, Angel!” Rhys snapped as he turned towards the screens, his ECHO eye scanning the screens to get a better understanding of their tech before he began hacking into them with his prosthetic arm, “I’m going to make sure you can’t follow people using these things.”</p><p>“No! Don’t!” She shouted back, trying to jump up to stop him, her drawing gliding to the floor as her restraints held her back.</p><p>“It’s for your own good—vault hunters are literally the same as bandits!”</p><p>Angel had tears in her eyes, “Rhys, stop it! I…” She narrowed her eyes, staring at Rhys’s prosthetic as her siren tattoos glowed. “Executing phaseshift…” She muttered, hacking into his Hyperion tech. Suddenly, his arm began to malfunction, zapping him in the process before going completely limp.</p><p>Rhys flinched and grabbed his arm as the shock caused his joint to ache. “Angel don’t use your powers on me! Stop it!”</p><p>“You stop!”</p><p>“No, you!” </p><p>“You!”</p><p>Rhys sighed, turning back to his pouting sister, “I’m telling dad!” </p><p>Angel shrieked, “No!!! You promised y-you pinky promised!” </p><p>“And? That doesn’t mean anything real! I’m going to tell him right when he gets home. You can’t be watching vault hunters; they’ll poison you with their bandit-ways.” Rhys said matter-of-factly.</p><p>Angel bit her bottom lip hard before shouting, “Get out! Get out of my room right this instant you-you asshole!” She pointed towards the door.</p><p>“Fine, I’ll leave! And you know Dad doesn’t want you using that kind of language!” Rhys muttered, throwing his left arm up in the air, his right still hanging down limply.</p><p>“Leave and never come back!”</p><p>“I have to come back to bring you food and water, moron!”</p><p>“I—you—ugh, whatever, but don’t talk to me ever again!” She shouted back, before throwing the bag of candy at him, hitting him in the back, the candy spilling all over the floor.</p><p>“Gah!” Rhys groaned, brushing his clothes off, making sure none of the gummy candies got stuck to him, “You’re so immature!”</p><p>“And you’re… you’re just like dad!”</p><p>“Hah, that’s a compliment!” Rhys muttered as Angel gave him the middle finger, something she had learned from watching the vault hunters on her screens. </p><p>He punched the button, the door sliding shut with an aggravating lack of sound. Rhys sighed, putting a hand on his right shoulder, “Damn… she really short-circuited my arm, now I’m going to have to spend the rest of the day fixing it by myself.” He glanced back behind him, towards her room, “It’s for your own good Angel that dad knows…” He felt anger wash over him again from how their conversation, their first meeting in a long time, had played out, and he kicked over the kitchen trashcan before heading to his room to begin work on fixing his prosthetic. </p><p>Rhys abided to what Angel requested—or, more like, shouted—to him. He made sure she had the essentials but beyond that, the two didn’t interact. Every time Rhys stepped into her room, all the screens were off, like that would make him forget what she did. He still planned on telling father, when he got home, and that ended up being sooner than Rhys thought. One night, Rhys was in their living room, watching the television, when the door clicked open. The lights switched on, and Rhys turned his head, smiling.</p><p>“Dad!” Rhys said, enthusiastically, but he paused in fear when he saw his father. Something was… different, off about him. Rhys stood up as his dad tossed some items in his hands on their kitchen countertop. “D-dad?” Rhys stammered, “What’s the uh… mask for?” Rhys motioned at his own face as he was at a loss for words. Jack was wearing a tight-fitting mask that looked exactly like his own face, there were latches near his temple and chin that held the mask in place, and he had eyeholes in the mask so he could see. “Why do you have a mask of your own face on your face?”</p><p>Jack gave his son a large smirk, as the mask was able to show his facial reactions, “Let’s shut up about my mask, alright pumpkin?”</p><p>“I…” Rhys muttered as Jack placed his hands on his son’s shoulders.</p><p>“Look at you, all grown up! Hell, I forgot how old you were getting! Well, I got a proposition for you, kiddo!” He brought his son under his arm, “Firstly, you’re looking at the new C.E.O. of Hyperion!”</p><p>“Wha—n…no way!” Rhys sputtered, shocked that their father was acting so different, so animated, and shocked by the news he brought. “What happened to the old C.E.O.?”</p><p>Jack laughed, ruffling Rhys’s hair, “Come on, keep up kid, I said to shut up about meaningless things.”</p><p>“S-sorry…”</p><p>“Ah, don’t worry! See, as C.E.O., I can hire—and fire—anyone of my choosing, and son, it’s time, you’re old enough… I want you to come work with me for Hyperion!”</p><p>Rhys nearly choked on his own excitement, coughing as he tried to breathe.</p><p>“Uh… you alright there?” Jack muttered, “I know, it’s a lot to take in, although it really shouldn’t be since I’m so amazing and whatnot, makes sense that I’d become head of Hyperion…” Jack pondered whether it should or shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that he was now C.E.O., but he soon remembered his son and turned his attention back to him, “What you say, kiddo?”</p><p>Rhys cleared his throat, “I, wow, that’s… a lot to take in…” He rubbed his eyes, making sure this wasn’t in a dream.</p><p>“Well, don’t leave me without an answer! Don’t you want to work with Hyperion and your dear father?”</p><p>“Yes! Yes, of course!” Rhys shouted back excitedly, and as soon as Jack let him go, he began to jump in place from the excitement.</p><p>Jack grinned a wide grin while he watched the happiness that Rhys was experiencing, “Come on now, let’s pack your bags and get going, we have a new place to live!”</p><p>Rhys stopped his celebration for a second to ask, “What about Angel?”</p><p>Jack shook his head 'no' before turning Rhys around, pushing him towards his bedroom, “Oh, I have plans for her! I’ll be moving her to a new place, well-protected. It’ll be different than here, but she'll still have everything she needs. Trust me on that. I’ll catch up with you later on the space station.”</p><p>He stopped at the door of his room, a sudden feeling of guilt washing over him. He gripped the doorknob tightly, trying to get a peek of his father from behind him—why did something feel off? Everything had happened so quickly, and his father’s mask, there were so many questions unanswered and Rhys had a feeling deep in his gut that something was wrong.</p><p>“Go on Rhys, unless… you don’t want the job?” Jack’s words brought Rhys out of his thoughts. The older man glanced at his son, his smiling vanishing into a frown as he waited for Rhys’s next move.</p><p>Rhys closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in, “No, I want it with every fiber of my being.” He said, clearly and loudly, “I uh, my stomach is just a bit… queasy.” He gripped his stomach, trying to push the feeling in his gut away—it probably was from something he ate, anyhow.</p><p>Jack’s grin returned, “That’s from eating all that junk food for so long. When we’re on Hyperion I’ll treat ‘ya to some good, real food!”</p><p>He smiled, glancing behind him at his father, “That sounds good, dad!”</p><p>“Tut, tut, tut,” Jack clicked his tongue, “Let’s drop the whole ‘dad’ thing, alright? I’m your boss now—call me Handsome Jack from here on out.”</p><p>“Oh, uh, alright Handsome Jack…” The words were strange to say as Rhys never had called his dad Jack before, let alone calling him ‘Handsome’, well, it was odd for him, to say the least.</p><p>“Thanks, kiddo.” With that, Rhys went to gather his belongings, many questions rushing through his head as he did so.</p>
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